51 pages • 1 hour read
Misty CopelandLife in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | YA | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 3-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 3 Summary
Content Warning: This section discusses racism and physical and emotional abuse of children.
As ballet gives Misty’s life structure, her family life grows more chaotic. Life with Robert becomes fraught as his strictness with all the children becomes abusive. Misty later realizes that Robert may have liked her best because her coloring and features were more ambiguous and could be mistaken for being Polynesian or Asian, whereas her siblings were more visibly African American. Lindsey, Sylvia’s daughter with Harold, has darker skin and receives the brunt of Robert’s ire, including his use of racial slurs.
Robert’s verbal abuse becomes physical. He hits Misty’s brothers and routinely forces the two boys to fight in the yard when they get into arguments. Sylvia remains silent about his treatment, possibly because she now has a sixth child with Robert, a boy named Cameron. Eventually, however, Sylvia decides to leave, moving the family to live with friends in Los Angeles. From there, they move in with Sylvia’s newest boyfriend, a white man named Ray.
Misty reflects on her mother’s history with men. Sylvia was beautiful and popular as a Kansas City Chiefs cheerleader. She married her first husband, Mike, not long after high school. However, while traveling in Oakland, California, Mike was shot and killed. As Sylvia mourned his loss, she grew close with Mike’s best friend, Doug, and eventually married him. She had her first four children with him. Sylvia retired from cheerleading and trained as a nurse but worked in sales. She left Doug for reasons Misty never learned of to live with Harold, and then Robert, and now Ray. Throughout these relationships, Misty watches her mother become dependent on the men in her life.
After living with Ray for a year, Sylvia and her children move once again to live with a man named Alex. In both these situations, they live in a tiny apartment with the children sleeping with blankets on the floor while Sylvia and her current boyfriend share the single bedroom. Misty explains, “We were coming undone. […] Sometime between living with Ray and then Alex, Mommy had lost her last job and was struggling to find a new one” (60). Sylvia loses her car, and then Alex loses his apartment and the whole group moves into a motel.
By this point, Misty’s youngest brother, Cameron, only sees the family on weekends, as Robert has claimed primary custody. All the children begin to scatter. Lindsey often spends weeks with her father; Erica and Doug both elect to stay with friends for large periods. They have no money and little food, relying on food stamps to keep the family fed.
Sylvia decides that Misty should no longer attend ballet classes. The dance school is far away, requiring long rides on public transportation. Furthermore, Sylvia believes that the lessons keep Misty from spending proper time with her siblings or friends. When Misty explains this to Cindy, however, Cindy speaks with Sylvia in hopes of convincing her otherwise. Misty has worked hard to keep her family life secret, maintaining a veneer of normalcy at school, so Cindy is unaware of the conditions Misty is living in. Horrified, and believing strongly that Misty needs to keep dancing, Cindy says that she wants Misty to come live with her. To Misty’s surprise, Sylvia agrees.
Chapter 4 Summary
Misty describes her life with Cindy, Patrick, and their three-year-old son, Wolf. She explains that “transitions in [her] life had always been traumatic” (68), but Cindy, Patrick, and Wolf fold her into their lives and accept her just as she is. Even Cindy’s parents treat Misty like a granddaughter, insisting that she call them “Bubby” and “Papa” and taking her to synagogue with them.
With this transition comes changes. Misty quits the drill team. Her coach, Elizabeth Cantine, supports this and helps pay for Misty’s ballet supplies, though Misty only learns this later. Elizabeth remains one of her supporters and mentors into adulthood. Another change occurs when Misty discovers famous dancers through the videos that Cindy owns. She watches recordings of dances by Mikhail Baryshnikov and others, eventually discovering Paloma Herrera, one of the youngest dancers to become a principal with the American Ballet Theatre (ABT). Herrera becomes Misty’s new idol. Cindy switches Misty to homeschooling so that she will have more time for dance. She also encourages Misty to share her opinions by asking questions and listening without judgment. Misty credits Cindy with helping her find her voice.
During this time, Misty’s ballet career begins to take off. She performs in full productions with Cindy’s school. The local news covers her performances, and several articles are written about the “late-blooming black ballerina” (88), calling her a prodigy. Debbie Allen, a Black actress and dancer most famous for the TV show Fame, invites Misty to play Clare, the lead role of The Chocolate Nutcracker, a version of the Nutcracker ballet incorporating African American culture and dance.
Following this, Misty enters the Spotlight Awards, a prestigious contest that gives prizes in various categories and offers scholarships to teens in the arts. The artistic directors of major ballet companies attend the awards to watch young dancers and offer them positions at various summer intensive learning programs. Misty wins the top prize. Gerald Arpino, artistic director of Joffrey Ballet, one of the most prestigious companies in the US, offers her a place in his summer intensive program. After the awards, she receives offers from multiple top programs, including Joffrey, ABT, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and San Francisco Ballet. Though Misty’s dream is to join the professional company at ABT, she chooses to attend the summer program at San Francisco Ballet because they offer her not only a scholarship but also room and board and travel expenses. At the age of 15, she attends her first summer intensive program.
Chapter 5 Summary
Misty arrives in San Francisco for the summer intensive program with the San Francisco Ballet. There, she meets her roommate, a girl who is part Japanese and part Black. Misty wonders if the two Black girls have been put together on purpose or if it is merely a coincidence. Despite only two years of training, Misty is placed in the advanced-level courses during the summer program. She discovers that her reputation as a prodigy has preceded her. However, she quickly realizes that her lack of experience, including not knowing various terms, steps, and even ballet productions, is a large hurdle even with her innate talent. She also finds out that she lacks stamina. Her body is unaccustomed to being en pointe and in practice for many hours every single day. Still, her teachers embrace and nurture her, giving her extra attention when needed.
These summer programs are crucial for students. Not only do they provide invaluable learning experiences, but they are also a “critical rung on the ladder for young dancers aspiring to one day be part of American Ballet Theatre, the Joffrey, or any of the other prestigious ballet companies in the United States” (104). The artistic staff usually invites the most promising students to attend their school full-time, often leading to joining the professional company.
Misty is not surprised when the San Francisco Ballet invites her to come to the school full-time at the end of the summer program. She feels guilty, however, because she had already decided that she would decline, and she knows that many of the other girls are desperate for an offer. However, the decision is not entirely up to her. Sylvia has already expressed concern over Misty’s absence from the family and is beginning to suggest that she move back home from Cindy’s house. Furthermore, Cindy believes that she needs more training and personal attention before she attends a full school. Lastly, Misty’s main goal is still to go to ABT, not San Francisco Ballet. She declines the offer and returns home to San Pedro at the end of the summer, aware that tensions between Cindy and Sylvia are increasing.
Chapters 3-5 Analysis
Chapters 3-5 proceed in roughly chronological order—covering Misty’s life from the age of 13 to 15—while also centering on a single major event or topic. Chapter 3 centers around the chaos of Misty’s family, Chapter 4 focuses on Misty’s experiences living with Cindy and Patrick, and Chapter 5 focuses on her first summer intensive program, which is with San Francisco Ballet.
In Chapter 3, Misty describes how her family “spin[s] out of control” (46). In contrast to the structure she gains from her ballet lessons, Misty’s family life is chaotic and disintegrating, particularly regarding the children’s relationship with Robert. Robert’s behavior, especially his use of racist slurs, is Misty’s first real introduction to racist attitudes, which she will face in a more subtle but no less traumatic way when she enters the world of professional ballet. As Misty explains in Chapter 3, she encounters bigotry throughout her ballet career, but “after living with Robert it would no longer come as a surprise” (52). This is an early hint toward the theme of Intersections of Race, Identity, and Art that she elaborates on in more detail as her ballet career progresses. Misty implies that her experiences with Robert’s racism help to prepare her for the racism she will face later in life, helping her build the resilience and strength necessary to withstand racism in the ballet world. At this point in her life, Misty learns that her race is a part of her identity that may expose her to prejudice and abuse, though she has not yet fully confronted the way her race will intersect with her identity as a dancer.
The instability and abuse Misty experiences in Chapter 3 also lead to one of the more impactful events of her life: leaving her mother’s care to live with Cindy. Misty tries to depict this moment fairly, both explaining the horrible conditions she and her siblings live in but also assuring the audience that her mother loves them and is not aware of how bad the situation is. There is no doubt that Misty loves her mother and does not want to malign her in the narrative, despite their difficulties. Simultaneously, Misty clearly believes that Cindy acts out of concern and love, not a desire to manipulate as Sylvia will later claim.
Chapter 4 centers on Misty’s life with Cindy and Patrick and the theme of The Power of Mentorship. The two years she spends with them are idyllic, filled with warmth, acceptance, and love. The entire Bradley family treats Misty as one of their own. This is the first time Misty experiences a truly stable family life, including more space, a quiet environment, and healthier food. Most crucially for Misty’s growth and development, Cindy helps Misty find her own voice by showing her that her opinions are worth speaking and listening to. Misty comes back to this lesson later in the memoir, when using her voice to help others becomes a motivating force in her life, thus reinforcing the impact Cindy’s mentorship and support have on her development. Cindy also provides the material and emotional support Misty needs to chase her ballet ambitions: Through Cindy, Misty learns about the wider world of dance and that she can seize the opportunity to become part of that world. Though Sylvia loves and supports Misty as a mother, Cindy’s mentorship enables Misty to take risks and pursue her passions.
Chapter 5 focuses on a specific event in Misty’s life: her first experience at a summer intensive program with the San Francisco Ballet. This time is vital because she discovers the limits of her innate talent as compared to experience and the benefit of time and education, which in turn bolsters her Dedication and Discipline. By this time, the label “prodigy” has already been following Misty around for over a year. Despite only two years of training, she has won the Spotlight Awards scholarship and has been offered positions at several summer intensives. At the summer intensive program, she discovers that prodigious talent can only take her so far. Rather than allowing this to deter her, she forges on, reminding herself that her “ultimate prize” will be joining the American Ballet Theatre. She understands that talent is not a substitute for discipline and experience. She needs to work harder than everyone else to catch up with her peers, and she does. Her time in San Francisco also begins to illuminate the way the intersections of race, identity, and art will shape her life going forward. Misty immediately notices that she is one of the only Black girls in the program and that she is rooming with one of the only other Black girls. Though the implications of this situation are not yet clear, Misty becomes aware for the first time of how her race complicates her identity as a ballet dancer.
